The Potter knockers will now start to feel a little trickle of sweat on their brow, wondering if their actions were right, or if its lead to Saints signing a dud coach.

Wigan await. !!!!!!GULP!!!!!

Not at all.

I think with all those changes he made, with all that whistleblowing in the first half and with a lot of focus on Gary Wheeler, Simmons and possibly Hudds' coach had some specific things in mind before today's match.

Why was the alot of focus on wheeler?

Well, that's a good question. Maybe one of the aims Royce had in this match was to establish whether Wheeler should take the other centre position as a permanent fixture. In the first half, no matter what was going on at the other side of the pitch, the ball invariably came to Wheeler's side of the pitch. Then Wheeler had a spell had halfback. Then he scored a cracking try after a move from the scrum that he was integral to and which left Hudds utterly bewildered.

what was your team like today? strong team or could it have been stronger??

The strongest team we have ... in patches. Simmons made a load of changes, especially to the halves. But also to the wings. And as I've said, he seemed to focus a lot on Wheeler.

www.saintsrlfc.com/news/2978 Last paragraph, a certain pie muncher will enjoy reading that.

www.saintsrlfc.com/news/2978 Last paragraph, a certain pie muncher will enjoy reading that.

Interesting words from Royce: www.saintsrlfc.com/news/2978 Reckons Wheeler has found his position in the centres, and is critical of the move to speed up the play the ball.

Interesting words from Royce: www.saintsrlfc.com/news/2978 Reckons Wheeler has found his position in the centres, and is critical of the move to speed up the play the ball.

That is absolutely what you would have said had Potter been in charge of the match I'm sure.

It would be "this was our last chance to get a settled team before Wigan, he's clueless".



Hudds have had 4 friendlies to our 2 (not sure how strong a team they've put out) and they treated the match as a proper warm up for SL rather than still trying out positions and chopping and changing. I'm certainly not going to get too disheartened.

As for Royce "discovering" Wheeler is the solution at left centre, I could have told him that 18 months ago.

Potter came to us when we still had a lot of very experienced players, many of whom had played together for years, we were still playing at Knowsley Road as we had been for years and Potter himself was very recently experienced in Superleague. That meant all of us had an opportunity to see what he did with a team. When Potter first came, my only concerns were defence and discipline. That's on record and bearing in mind where our defence and discipline were under Anderson, my concerns were justified.

Royce Simmons is a new coach fielding a team without almost all of its most experienced Superleague players plus three players he didn't choose, one of whom is still injured. He has had an incredibly short off-season bearing in mind injuries and internationals. He has a smaller squad at present than Potter had and has lost a key focus in Cunningham, who Potter still had at his disposal. Potter had it easy, except for the injuries. Simmons has a far, far more difficult task as he has to blend a new team together in a new but temporary environment having not coached at first grade for years.

If Potter had had us playing like that against Huddersfield then I would have been concerned. I'm not concerned that we played like that with Simmons in charge. Disappointed but not concerned. If we are still playing like that in a few weeks' time then I may start to be concerned.


He has previously said that Wheeler has played halfback previously and he wanted to see what he could do there. Royce doesn't have the benefit of watching our players every week like we do, so he is still getting to know them. I think it's a positive that he actually allowed Wheeler to have a go at halfback as well as at centre.

Astounding!



p.s. I agree with much of what you've said there, just pulling your leg.

It's a friendly under a new coach with a lot of chopping and changing, we'll see what happens come MM.

In best Rogues smug mode, I told you so.


It's been killing the game for years, failed halfbacks at hooker, with poor distribution skills and very little craft. Head down and run from dummy half.

As I've said before, bring back the old rule, that if the dummy half gets tackled in possession then it should be either a handover or a scrum with head and feed to the opposition.

Most odd.
I thought our game over the last 10+ years was largely based on speed around the ruck; now sizzler is saying he doesn't like it?



Is this all part of being in a post KC era?

Me thinks this might be the start of a mid-table transition phase. Simmons certainly seems to see a different future for us that the way we've played under Millward, Anderson and even Potter.

Encouraging signs I think, but not in terms of trophies in the short term.

There is absolutely no chance of Saints finishing mid-table in 2011.

Making the jump from a friendly defeat against a strong side (with another SL friendly under their belt and a full side without experimentation, whilst we chop and change our backs throughout) and finishing mid-table is daft, but very much in keeping with your usual spoutings.

The Giants players that played last night have only played in 2 of the 4 freindlies just like the Saints boys
so the above poster can not make that an excuse,the sooner people realise that the Giants are real force and stop making excuses when there team beat.

you've got to remember he thought we'd finish behind wakefield last year, so this is a marked improvement!

They'd played a full match against a SL side, we played half a game against a Championship club.

If we were going into every match in 2011 with the intention of swapping around centres, stand offs and 7s throughout the match, I might read something into the result.

wrong again, we played the first team for 40 mins v hull kr. then lots of changes for the 2nd half

wheeler looked a very good player for you lot lastnight

giants looked very good everywhere



it was only a friendly but i know which camp id rather be with at the moment.

poor crowd lastnight , i know it was a monday night but 1200

Raleigh/Griffin/Patrick had certainly played in at least 2 games against SL opposition before taking on Saints, and most of your side had played in at least one game against SL opposition before taking on Saints.

We'd played 0 minutes against SL opposition and were chopping and changing our team.

Read as much into it as you like, fact is it was a friendly and the result is irrelevant.

You know which camp you'd rather be in? I'd rather be in the camp that hasn't finished outside the top2 for years, has made 5 GF on the spin and which knocked your side out of the play-offs without both our first choice halves, ta very much.

raleigh didnt play lastnight.

yeh result irrelevant but result will have done wonders for confidence going into the new season.

looking good

Read it. I said 'the start' of a mid-table run. I think it'll take a bit of time to adapt to Simmons different approach and also to Cunningham's departure.

You have to factor in the possibility of Kyle Eastmond, Leon Pryce and James Graham being in their last season at Saints. I've heard the rumours of a new deal for Jammer, but the other two look very much like they will be leaving. I don't think any of the other young players at the club in that position are worthy of a starting place at 6 or 7 if we're planning on being competitive.

Why are you assuming that if Kyle and Pryce leave next year we won't be signing anyone to replace them?

Saints won't be finishing outside the top four any time soon, don't fret.

You want a bet on that?

If you finish in the top 4 i'll have a saints badge on here all next season below 4 you have a wigan badge all next seaon?